Living After Homicide

Jan Canty, Ph.D....

Welcome. Since you have found your way here, you have no doubt personally experienced the aftermath of homicide,
or care about someone who has. We are part of a fellowship we never expected to join and we are larger than most people
imagine. We grow by 17,000 murders a year. Some of you have lost fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters or brothers.
In my case, it was my spouse.

We are amazingly diverse and, oddly quite similar.
Some of us are young, others old, some dwell in rural areas and others in the city. But we all know the weariness,
anger, fear, isolation and confusion that homicide brings to our doorstep. We each have a specific memory we cannot
shake, a particular trigger for our reactions and some change of behavior which, like a scar, will not go away.

The intent of this blog is to offer you a safe platform to share your unique story, collect resources we stumble upon and a
place to comment on the memoires that others post. This is not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health care
or spiritual guidance. The take away message here is you are accompanied. Your loved one matters. Here is your place to mingle,
to express yourself and learn.. There is strength in numbers.

Archive

The proposed title will be "A Man Divided" but the publisher has final say in this matter because they are concerned with sales and competing books with similiar names. The manuscript is currently in the hands of Lowell Cauffiel who is reviewing it and who has agreed to write a forward. It's a slow process from manuscript to print. I will post more here when I have more information. Thanks for asking.

Bearing witness to a homicide, trying to live with its aftermath, or struggling to support a friend or loved one who is on this unimaginable pilgrammage is an immense task. The death and it's fallout is always frightening, exhausting and infuriating. Specific, unwanted images, statements, sounds, smells or nightmares bring the survivor back. The funeral, news coverage, legal knots, anniversaries and sleepless nights resurrect the grief. Sharing this tragedy with others will never bring the deceased back, but it lets others know that this murder victim is never forgotten. A problem shared is a problem divided. So, again I ask, what is your story?

Are you not only trying to cope with a homicide, but an unsolved one? Maybe sharing your story will jar loose some new information, arouse the interest of a cold case detective or simply let others know that we never forget. Please provide what information you do know here and see if others can help.

If you have found a resource that can help someone share it with us. Have you come across a useful book, magazine, website or support group? Is there a movie that touched you and offered some peace of mind? We all are in search of tools.